Pages

Saturday, August 17, 2013

Go Teen Writers Virtual Writing Retreat: Saturday Lunch Giveaway!

by Stephanie MorrillStephanie writes young adult contemporary novels and is the creator of GoTeenWriters.com. Her novels include The Reinvention of Skylar Hoyt series (Revell) and The Revised Life of Ellie Sweet (Playlist). You can connect with her on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and check out samples of her work on her author website.It's lunch time here at the Go Teen Writers virtual writing retreat, and that means it's time for us to gather around our imaginary table, chat about something writery, and give away a couple great books.

Who's your favorite literary couple? Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy? Ron and Hermione? Martyr and Abby? Shout it out for a chance to win these lovely romantic books, Whispers from the Shadows by Roseanna M. White and Doon by Lorie Langdon! (This giveaway is open only to US residents. Many thanks to the team at Blink for donating Doon!)

*stares wide-eyed at the number of options, knowing she is going to write at least two paragraphs about the virtues of her favorite literary couples**plunges in*

First I've got to give a shout-out to Suzanne Collins, not for The Hunger Games, but for Gregor the Overlander, her middle-grade series that was published long before THG. It's MG, so you wouldn't think the romance would be either important or incredible, but it's both, especially in the last book. Gregory and Luxa have the perfect relationship; it goes from dislike to mutual respect to a love so subtle and beautiful and real that you can hardly believe they're only twelve. (And then Collins goes and breaks your heart, but I prefer not to think about that.)

I also really love Maerad and Cadvan in The Books of Pellinor by Alison Croggon. He's a good deal older than her, and it's the classic fantasy-novel-mentor-to-romance relationship (is that a thing? I think that's a thing?), but somehow it works. There's a part in The Riddle (book 2) that made my poor 9-year-old self cry until I scoured the internet and found out that a Certain Person wasn't actually dead. (Maerad's brother Hem also has one of the most Heartbreaking Romances Ever in book #3, The Crow. Heavens I need to re-read those books.)

Oh! And of course there's Eugenides and SPOILER, from The Queen's Thief series by Megan Whalen Turner. I may have called it as soon as I read the flap of book 2, but watching it develop was marvelous. There was one passage in book 3 that was so achingly romantic and heartbreaking and beautiful and has since become my favorite passage in all of literature, because I'm the dork who has favorite passages.

Oops I wrote an essay. Oh well. :) (And clearly I have a thing for tragic romances, because I referenced both Gregor and Luxa and Hem and Zelika.)

You and I clearly have similar tastes in terms of romance. ;) Hem and Zelike were PERFECT. SO were Gregor and Luxa but Hem and Zelika *cries* at least we know both Gregor and Luxa are safe and sound, even if they're not together, wereas Zelika... Poor baby. Dude, I haven't read those books (pellinor) in five years, thanks, now I might have to buy the first three off amazon. :P (I already own the last one. ;)

Eep, you know Pellinor! *claps* :D I still believe Gregor and Luxa got back together, somehow, and to maintain otherwise would be to destroy my fragile twelve-year-old imagination of years past. (Hem also finds his Happily Ever After eventually.)

As a side note (and because I am a hopeless romantic who cannot help but babble about her favorite romances), I also love-love-love Hector and Elisa in The Crown of Embers by Rae Carson, the sequel to The Girl of Fire and Thorns. I love them for one reason and one reason only: Elisa's first impression of Hector (back in TGoFaT, before Spoilerish Things happened) was of "an unkind hand." That stuck with me, for some reason.

That's not something I've often thought about. I always liked the LotR couples, even though thet don't get much page time: Aragorn and Arwen, Faramir and Eowyn, Sam and Rosie. I think I'll be un-romantic and choose mouse couple Matthias and Cornflower of Brian Jaques' Redwall.

Either Percabeth or Jiper. I love their chemistry, either way. Both couples complement each other well; Percy's a bit of a hothead, Annabeth is smart and brings him down to earth; Jason and Piper's relationship has been less explored since we've had less time with them, but it seems like their personalities really click.

Hmmm...Hester Prynne and Arthur Dimmesdale. Just kidding. That's a hard one to narrow down! You can't beat Robin Jones Gunn's Todd and Christy, but I've always loved Clark and Marty Davis (Love Comes Softly series), Laura and Almanzo Wilder, Alexandra Bergson and Carl Linstrum (Willa Cather's O Pioneers!)...My English major side is showing. There are others that'll probably jump out at me as soon as I post this, but now I'm feeling all sentimental. Sigh.

Oooh, hard question. I think mine might be Ron and Hermione, but Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth are great as well . . . And I really love India Moody and Emory Trimble from Red Moon at Sharpsburg. And Remus and Tonks . . .I guess my favorite is defined by whatever book and reading at the time. Percy and Annabeth too.... I'm a hopeless romantic. . . .

My favorite literary couple. . .how could you ask such a torturous question, Stephanie!?!? How can you pick just one? For now I'll just say, on a limb, Faramir and Eowyn from The Lord of the Rings. Faramir's persistence in winning her is so sweet :)

A little over halfway through my weekend word count goal! It's slowed down a lot for me because I went blazing into Chapter 18 as a "pantster". That's not going to work, I'm afraid--not for this retreat anyway! So I spent a few minutes fleshing out this and the next two chapters.

The Doctor (Nine and Ten) and Rose from Doctor Who, as well as the Eleventh Doctor and River Song. Amy and Rory, too.Faramir and Eowyn, Aragorn and Arwen from Lord of the Rings.Han Solo and Princess Leia, Luke Skywalker and Mara Jade from Star Wars.

Anne Shirley and Gilbert Blythe. How had no one said them? Best. Couple. Ever. And Razo and Dasha from the books of Bayern! And Jane and Mr. Bingely (spell check?) Of course! Also pretty much any couple Rick Riordan put together. :)

There are sooo many choices for this. I definitely like Percy & Annabeth from the Percy Jackson books, but Gabi and Marcello from the River of Time are a favorite. And I like Finnick and Annie from the Hunger Games Trilogy. Man, this is such a hard choice. I don't think I could just pick one!

I don't have and will never be able to choose one favorite. But right now I can say Susan Pevensie and Prince Caspian (I know, I know, technically a movie pairing, don't kill me Canon Keepers!) because I'm writing a fanfic about them right now :)

Right now my fave literary couple is Vin and Elend from Brandond Sanderson's Mistborn trilogy. Others include Elanor Dahswood and Edward Ferras from Sense and Sensibility, multiple couples from Harry Potter, and I'm sure there are others, but those are the ones on the top of my head.

Uhh... this is a hard one. Alanna and George from Song of the Lioness, Harry and Ginny, Hazel and Augustus of course, Anne Shirley and Gilbert Blythe, and Laurie and Jo even though they never actually were a couple :)

Ok, my favourite is...ummmmm. I got it! Lauren Holbrook and Ryan (I am drawing a blank on his last name). They aren't famous but still. They are awesome. Erryn Mangum wrote them, and they are so quirky and loveable. Seriously, you gotta read those books.

Hmmm. I'd say either Laurie and Jo or Katniss and Peeta. Miri ad Peder were pretty awesome too. And I really liked Hazel and Gus. Oh, and I just read a romance the other day, My Life Next Door, where the couple was really good. So many choices! This was a hard one, Stephanie.:)

I think I'd have to go with Keiro and Attia from Catherine Fisher's Sapphique. They weren't exactly a couple--Fisher left all the potential relationships in the series kind of ambiguous--but I loved Keiro and I liked the development of their relationship. I always like it better when things are just light and bantery anyways, not so much when everything gets all serious. Like Max and Fang--I liked them at the beginning, but it ended up irritating me somewhat by the end of the series.

Augh, missed the giveaway. A curse and a pox on no internet access. I'll answer the question anyway- my favorite would probably be Aragorn and Arwen from LOTR, just because I find it amazing that anyone would wait so incredibly long to be together. Una and Prince Aethelbald from Heartless, Eanrin and Imraldera from the Tales of Goldstone Wood, and Sophie and Howl from Howl's Moving Castle are all close seconds, though.